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The literary department at the London theatre is renowned for taking risks with untried playwrights, but is now under threatThe Royal Court is known for putting the names of emerging playwrights up in lights for the first time, but is the voltage now dimming for Britain’s best known path into theatre writing? The Royal Court’s literary department is struggling to survive as the venue...

Actor says seats costing £150 are driving away young people and risk keeping theatre ‘elitist’Actor Andrew Scott has suggested cheap theatre tickets should be put on a “sale rack” so that young people can see West End productions without having to spend £150.The actor, known for television roles such as the “hot” priest in Fleabag and Moriarty in Sherlock, has won two Olivier Awards...

West End even more packed than usual with big-name talent, but insiders say star casting is not only route to successful productionsThere is dream theatre casting – and then there is persuading Spider-Man to play Romeo. The news this week that Tom Holland, the megastar 27-year-old (Instagram followers: 66 million) at the heart of Marvel’s web-slinging franchise will be appearing in a “pulsating” new...

A dozen playwrights and directors meet in Kyiv and find comedy can be an important part of their creative processIn a studio theatre tucked into a courtyard behind Kyiv’s main Khreshchatyk Street, six playwrights and six directors were hammering out a fraught question: how to write plays about war, during the war.One unexpected outcome of their workshops was: through jokes. Continue reading...

Theatreland is taking a gamble on a wave of quirky little shows to challenge the big but tired box office beasts A fresh kind of musical theatre show, set apart by having started life on the fringe or in a small-scale provincial production, is challenging the established order in London’s West End this season.A wave of new, quirky productions will be taking their places...

Ousting of Keith, Sián Phillips and others in 2022 led to watchdog admitting it made errors in handling of rowA long-running and acrimonious dispute at an actors’ charity involving some of the best-known names of the British stage and screen is to return to the spotlight next week amid claims of boardroom coups and electoral gerrymandering.The quarrel at the £40m Actors’ Benevolent Fund (ABF)...